Spring 2016 Master Classes

April 23, 2016

Working with Media: How to Develop a Winning Media Strategy

with Lesli Boldt

With today’s rapidly changing media landscape, getting earned media – that is, coverage of your organization or issue by mainstream media – is more challenging than ever before. To succeed in getting your stories covered, you need a winning media strategy to make sure your story gets to the top of the newsroom’s list of priorities.

In this intensive Tyee Master Class with communications expert Lesli Boldt, participants will learn the fundamentals of a winning media strategy, including how to structure media pitches use other communications channels to set up your communications campaign for success.

April 30, 2016

Strategic Frames and Messaging Demystified

with James Boothroyd

No matter how important or incendiary, if your issue is communicated poorly it won’t make it onto the public agenda. And, as legions of communications experts have learned, at least since George Lakoff popularized the topic, your artful words and images will be wasted if they fall outside appropriate conceptual frames – the mental templates we humans use to make sense of the barrage of information coming at us every day.

Back by popular demand, this Tyee Master Class will help campaign and communications managers understand how strategic frames and messaging work, and how to craft frames and messages to reach target audiences – and key media – and advance social change (without spending a million on market research). Participants will also have time to workshop their own frames and messages and get feedback from James Boothroyd and fellow attendees.

May 7, 2016

How to Break Through Online and Win Campaigns

with Karl Hardin

A well oiled and humming digital engagement strategy can attract more followers to your cause, deepen your relationships with your supporters and donors and provide opportunities for people to come together and achieve amazing things together.

Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and workshop your campaign or issue, as digital strategist Karl Hardin walks you through digital campaigning in this intensive one-day Tyee Master Class. You’ll cover the basics, do a deep dive on strategy and get your hands dirty by workshopping your story and writing copy for e-mail and the web.

You’ll come away with a better appreciation of how storytelling can make people click things online and how that can be the first step towards a meaningful and impactful relationship. And how these relationships, at scale, can change the world.

May 14, 2016

Rhetoric Rules!

Dos and Don'ts for Crafting a Killer Commentary

with James Boothroyd

Op-eds (so-called because they typically appear opposite the editorial page of newspapers) offer one of the few, relatively unmediated opportunities for concerned citizens and experts to publish their views in a digestible format, watched by not only decision-makers (or their minions) but also one's allies and enemies, and media opinion-leaders. Carefully crafted, with a good photo, they can catapult your issues onto the public agenda, grab the attention of government leaders, and even demand a response.

In this Tyee Master Class, you'll learn the enduring value of an op-ed (or digital commentary) and how these can validate your campaign in the eyes of decision-makers and other key audiences, including funders. In a series of structured exercises, with feedback, you'll learn the building blocks of a solid op-ed, and draft and polish your own piece. You’ll also learn strategies for pitching media and getting your piece published.

The Tyee Master Class Series

Exclusive weekend workshops led by some of our most accomplished contributors and colleagues.

The Tyee Master Classes offer immersion training in specialized disciplines designed and taught by acclaimed industry experts. This spring, tune up your communications skills and launch your issues into the public conversation with four complimentary classes designed to help you think big and learn some new tools.

Sign up for one class, and receive a promo code to get 25% any other class in the series.

Each of our instructors has crafted an in-depth lesson plan informed by their experience working in the field. Expect to learn through both dialogue and doing. Classes include seminar-style instruction, interactive Q&A, hands-on break-out sessions and personalized feedback, with a promise to leave empty catch-phrases and sleep-inducing slideshows at home.

We know it's not possible to become a master in one weekend. But there is something to be said for study under great teachers -- a tradition passed down through history. Socrates was Plato's teacher. Mozart was mentored by Haydn. Picasso studied printing with Man Ray.

Offering mentorship and training from today's great teachers, The Tyee Master Classes will equip you for your own personal quest to the top of your game.

And while your studies are serious, they most certainly don’t need to be stuffy -- refreshments and tasty catering set the mood for an interactive, flexible, high-impact lesson you can’t find anywhere else.